Laundry Room Door Makeover
- By Joan
- July 12, 2023
- 3 Comments
Laundry Room Door Makeover
Welcome back friends, I’m continuing my projects on my son’s old farmhouse. Next up, this very solid, very heavy, wooden door. It’s located in the kitchen and leads to the laundry room. We think that this door was originally an exterior door, but the room it leads to was enclosed to make an interior laundry room, mud room.
Here is a better picture of the wall. Right next to my door is an exterior window which leads to another room with even more exterior windows. While all the old wood is original to the house it makes the kitchen extremely dark.
Start with a window that fits comfortably inside your door….you’ll need at least a few inches on all sides of the door. I found this window at my favorite architectural salvage yard’s junk pile.
This window has one wider side. Cut down the wider side so that all the edges are equal or at least the edges on opposite sides of each other are the same.
To help me lay out my lettering, I took a plain piece of paper the same size as my window and drew an arc. This old barrel lid was the perfect arc template.
Place the paper behind the window to use as your lettering guide.
Using the arc as a template line up your stenciled letters in a nice semi circle.. Once you’re happy with the placement and the spacing of the letters, tape into place.
Use a stencil brush to paint. You may need to clean up any bleed or rough edges with a razor blade.
Note. If you don’t have stencils, print out letters in the size and font you desire and glue onto the paper in the back. Use the lettering as a pattern to paint the letters onto your window.
Place your window on the door exactly where you want it to go. You will not be able to change it later.
Trace around the window with a pencil. This will be your cut line.
We didn’t have all our tools on hand to make the cut into the door so we made do with what we had. First, a plunge cut with a circular saw will get you 95% of the way there. A handheld jigsaw would have been perfect for the corners if my son or I had happened to remember to bring one, but we made do with a reciprocating saw for the final corner cuts.
We had one chance to make this cut perfect so I put the saw into the hands of my son, Keith. It’s his door, if he has an oops, it’s on him. 😆 He actually made the cut perfectly and I got to take a picture.
Test out the window and hole for fit before moving onto the next step.
I trimmed out the window with thin strips of wood, mitering the corners, nailing and gluing into place.
With construction adhesive, glue around the edge of the window and the added trim. Slide the window perfectly into place in the newly cut door. The trim stops the window from going all the way thru. If any of the glue oozes out, wipe it away before it dries.
Allow the construction adhesive to dry before rehanging your door and reattaching the old hardware.
BTW, once the window has been inserted into the door, use the same picture frame trim pieces for the other side of the door.
A little caulk to fill in any gaps, and a couple coats of paint later, we have a new laundry room door with so much light shining thru.
You may have noticed that I had a very short door when I was working on it outside. This is actually a Dutch door, where the top and bottom parts of the door operate independently of each other. Good for keeping toddlers and pets inside while letting the breeze come thru.
Hard to believe that this is the same laundry room door. The solid, heavy wooden door just sucked the light right out of this room. I think we brought some of it back. It was a good start but more paint could be in store for this room.
Until next time, stay inspired.
If you don’t have a laundry room door, how about a frosted pantry door from 2019.
Vintage Pantry Door
Or a sliding barn door for a bathroom or office. This one is from 2016.
Sliding Barn Door for a Bathroom
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That’s fabulous! I can’t wait to see what color you choose for the kitchen.
Great makeover!
Love all your ideas!